美国文学考试必备知识点

Transcendentalism refers to the religious and philosophical doctrines of Ralph Waldo Emerson and others in New England in the middle 1800’s, which emphasized the importance of individual inspiration and intuition, the Oversoul, and Nature. Other concepts that accompanied Transcendentalism include the idea that nature is ennobling and the idea that the individual is divine and, therefore, self-reliant. New England Transcendentalism is the product of a combination of native American Puritanism and European Romanticism. 2.Naturalism

Naturalism, a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Zola, who claimed at “scientific” status for his studies of impoverished characters miserably subjected to hunger, sexual obsession, and hereditary defects. Natural fiction aspired to a sociological objectivity, offering detailed and fully researched investigations into unexplored corners of modern society. The most significant work of naturalism in English being Dreiser’s Sister Carrie. 3.American Dream

The American Dream is the faith held by many people in the United States of America that through hard work, courage and determination one can achieve a better life for oneself, usually through financial prosperity. These were values held by many early European settlers, and have been passed on to subsequent generations. 4.The Lost Generation

The term Lost Generation was coined by Gertrude Stein to refer to a group of American Literary notables who lived in Paris from the time period which saw the end of World War I to the beginning of the Great Depression. Significant members included Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ezra Pound, Sherwood Anderson, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein herself. Hemingway likely popularized the term, quoting Stein (“You are all a lost generation”) as epigraph to his novel The Sun Also Rises. More generally, the term is being used for the young adults of Europe and America during World War I. They were “lost” because after the war many of them were disillusioned with the world in general and unwilling to more into a settled life 5. Modernism

Modern writing is marked by a strong and conscious break with traditional forms and techniques of expression; it believes that we create the world in the act of perceiving it. Modernism implies historical discontinuity, a sense of alienation, of loss,

and of despair. It elevates the individual and his inner being over social man and prefers the unconscious to the self-conscious. 6. Romanticism .

7. Puritanism

The principles and practices of puritans were popularly known as Puritanism. Puritanism accepted the doctrines of Calvinism: the sovereignty of God; the supreme authority of the Bible; the irresistibility of God’s will for man in every act of life from cradle to grave. These doctrines led the Puritans to examine their souls to find whether they were of the elect and to search the Bible to determine God’s will. 8. Hemingway Heroes / Code Hero

“Hemingway Heroes” refer to some protagonists in Hemingway’s works. Such a hero usually is an average man of decidedly masculine tastes, sensitive and intelligent. And usually he is a man of action and of a few words. He is such an individualist, alone even when with other people, somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happiness. The Hemingway heroes stand for a whole generation. In a world which is essentially chaotic and meaningless, a Hemingway hero fights a solitary struggle against a force he does not even understand. The awareness that it must end in defeat, no matter how hard he strives, engenders a sense of despair. But Hemingway heroes possess a kind of “despairing courage” as Bertrand Russell terms. It is this courage that enables a man to behave like a man, to assert his dignity in face of adversity. Surely Hemingway heroes differ, one from another, in their view of the world. The difference which comes gradually in view is an index to the subtle change which Hemingway’s outlook had undergone.

Expressionism

Expressionism refers to a movement in Germany early in the 20th century, in which a number of painters sought to avoid the representation of external reality and, instead, to project a highly personal or subjective vision of the world. The main principle involved is that expression determines form, and therefore imagery, punctuation, syntax, and so forth. In brief, any of the formal rules and elements of writing can be bent or disjointed to suit the purpose. Theatrically, expressionism was a reaction against realism in that it tends to show inner psychological realities. O’Neill’s plays are some of the best examples.

The Imagist Movement (Imagism)

Led by Ezra Pound and flourished from 1909 to 1917, the movement advanced modernism in arts which concentrated on reforming the medium of poetry as opposed to Romanticism, especially Tennyson' s wordiness and high-flown language in poetry. The three principles followed by the Imagists were:

(1) \"Direct treatment\" (2) \"Economy of Expression\" (3) \" Rhythm\" symbolism

Symbolism originates in France in the middle 19th century. The poetry collection The Flowers of Evil by the French poet Charles Baudelaire is a representative work of this genre. Symbolism tries to express the dreamy mysterious inner world of the writer.

Stream-of-consciousness

Stream-of-consciousness begins in the 1920’s in Britain. It is a psychological term indicating “the flux of conscious and subconscious thoughts and impressions moving in the mind at any given time independently of the person’s will”. In late 19th century, the literary device of “interior monologue” was originated in France as an application of modern psychological knowledge to literary creation. In the 20th century, under the influence of Freud’s theory of psychological analysis, a number of writers adopted the “stream of consciousness” method of novel writing. The striking feature of these novelists is their giving precedence to the depiction of the characters’ mental and emotional reactions to external events, rather than the events themselves. (to be continued) Free verse:

a form of poetry without rhyme, meter, regular line length, and regular stanzaic structure. It depends on natural speech for rhythm. Robert Frost compared it to “playing tennis with the net down.” Though much simpler and less restrictive than conventional poetry and blank verse, free verse does no mean “formlessness.” T. S. Eliot once said that “no verse is free for the man who wants to do a good job.” Though its origin is unknown, it was attempted by such early poets as Surrey, Milton, Blake, and Macpherson. It was Whitman who did the greatest contribution to the development and popularity of free verse. Whitman favored the simplicity and freedom of expression. According to him, “The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of light of letters is simplicity. Noting is better than simplicity.” Jazz age:

Jazz is a form of dance music that is derived from early Afro-American folk music, ragtime, and Negro blues. It is marked with exciting rhythm, pronounced syncopation, and constant improvisation. The musical instruments used are mainly drums, trumpets, and saxophones. Major composers of Jazz music include Irvin Berlin and W. C. Handy. The term Jazz Age was specifically employed by Fitzgerald to denote the 1920s, which was characterized by the loss of traditional moral standards, indulgence in romantic yearnings, and great social excitement. According to Malcolm Cowley, the Jazz Age was “a legend of glitter, of recklessness, and of talent in such profusion that it was sown broadcast like wild oats.” F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age, like Mark Twain’s The Gilded Age, was an epoch-making work.

Black humor:

a term frequently used in modern literary criticism. It is sometimes called ‘black comedy’ or ‘tragic farce.’ It is humor or laughter resulting from great pain, despair, horror and the absurdity of human existence. Black humor is a common quality of modern anti-novels and anti-dramas. Examples are Franz Kafka’s stories like “Metamorphosis”, “The Castle” and “The Trial”, Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22 and Albee’s The Zoo Story. Other writers who did much contribution to the popularity of black humor were Beckett, Camus, Ionesco, Vonnegut, Pynchon and so on. Autobiography:

a story a writer writes about his or her own life experiences. It is narrated from the first-person point of view. The term was probably first used by Southey. But the first important autobiography was Confessions written by Augustine of Hippo. Other examples include Franklin’s Autobiography, Adams’s The Education of Henry Adams, John Stuart Mill’s Autobiography, Carlyle’s Reminiscences, Henry David Thoreau’s Walden, and so on. Surprise Ending:

Also called “O. Henry ending,” it is a completely unexpected turn or revelation of events at the conclusion of a story or play. An example is “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. Another instance is O. Henry’s story “The Gift of the Magi.” Blank verse:

poetry that does not rhyme but has iambic pentameter lines. Though not originated in England or America, it has been the most important and most widely used English verse form. Blank verse is popular because it is closest to the rhythm of daily English speech. Thus most English poems which are dramatic, reflective or narrative are in the form of blank verse. This verse was probably first used in England by Surrey who translated Aeneid, by Sackville and Norton who composed Gorboduc. It was developed and perfected by Marlowe, Shakespeare and Milton. In the 18th century, most poets favored heroic couplets. But Young and Thomson were able to write in the tradition of blank verse. The 19th century saw a renewed interest in this poetic form. Masters of blank verse included Wordsworth, Coleridge and Bryant. The fact that blank verse is still practiced by writers like T.S. Eliot, Yeats, Frost and Stevens shows how influential and favorable it really is.

Characteristics of Realism

2.1 Realism aims at the description of the actualities of the life and free from subjective prejudice, idealism or romantic color.

2.2 Realism focuses on commonness of the common people. The emphasis is on ordinary people, settings and events. 2.3 Life is presented as it is.

2.4 Use real characters, real incidents, real language and local dialects.

2.5 In matters of style, diction and sentence structure tend toward a plain style. 3.Representative writers

William Howells .Mark Twain .Henry James

Major features of Naturalism

1. At the core of naturalism is determinism

2.An individual’s course in life is wholly determined by some combination of animal instinct, heredity, and environment. Humans lack freedom of their own will. All of their actions are controlled, determined.

3.The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. Life becomes a struggle for survival.

Two of the naturalist’s recurrent concerns are: social systems that destroy and dehumanize, and individual experience of loss and failure.

4.Naturalism is a harsher and extreme form of realism. The naturalists have a major difference from the realists.

Themes of Hawthorne’s writing

1. Explore the relationship between the past and the present 2. Explore the hidden motivations of his characters. 3. Examine the effect of hidden sin and secret guilt

4. Moral or immoral, right or wrong is the question Hawthorne always talks about in his works. 1.5. Style

1. His style was soft, flowing and almost feminine.

2.Language: smooth, clear, beautiful in sound and meaning

3. He also frequently uses symbols and settings to reveal the psychology of the characters.

Appreciation of The Scarlet Letter

1. Main Character:Hester Prynne.，Roger Chillingworth.，Arthur Dimmesdale 3. Character Analysis

 Hester: brave, strong-minded, warm-hearted, intelligent, sacrificing, decisive Dimmesdale: timid, selfish, irresponsible, cowardly, weak-minded  Chillingworth: cold-blooded, dehumanized Theme of The Scarlet Letter

To escape the bondage of religion either on people’s spirit or on people’s natural desire

4. Abundant use of symbols A ---adultery angel able

Prison—the place that deprived people of spiritual freedom Forest---the nature

Rose near the prison—Hester and her love Cap—sth controlling one’s beauty

Walt Whitman(1819-1892) Leaves Of Grass “Song of myself”

Analysis of the artistic features 2.4.1. form: free verse

Oral and powerful lg: Although free verse, he wrote with repeated and parallel sentences to strengthen the feelings. He express what he wanted to express freely, smoothly, and heatedly. His poems are like waves of the sea that rushed to the beach violently, one after another.

2.4.2 the first person narrator: direct and sympathetic to the reader 2.4.3. topic: sex.

To use his own expression, “he saw the world as a vision of love.” He believes that life is the source of poems, love and enthusiasm are the motives of creation. III. Comments on the writer

3.1. Subject: son of time, feels the pulse of the time. As a romanticist and transcendentalist, he broke the conventional poetic materials, no myth,no romance, no story of king and lords. He sings for self, common people, America, city life, nature, etc.

3.2. Form: (Free verse) poetry without fixed beat or regular rhyme. Whitman is the first great American poet to use this form of poetry, he also used it more skillfully than any other poet.

(1)One's Self I Sing

1. What is the significance of singing about one's self?

It is an exaltation of the individual spirit, which is typical of American people. 2. What is the difference between physiology and physiognomy?

Physiology is a science that deals with the functions and life process of human beings, whereas physiognomy refers to an art of judging character from contours of face itself or the appearance of a person.

3. What does Whitman mean by the term of \"the Modern Man\"?

He means that a man should be free from any prejudice and pride, totally different from the traditional one, that is full of bias. (3) O Captain! My Captain!

1. Why is the word \"Captain\" capitalized throughout the poem? In this poem the word “Captain” specially refers to Abraham Lincoln, president of the United States.

2. What overall metaphor does the poet employ in this poem? Life is a journey.

3. Why do people on the shores exult and bells ring, while the speaker remains so sad?

They welcome the ship returning from its hard trip, whereas the speaker is sad because the captain fails to receive his own honor.

Mark Twain 马克 ·吐温

The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras Count卡拉维拉斯县有名的跳蛙(1865):a short story

The Innocents Abroad国外的无辜者(1869)

Roughing It苦行记(1872): on his experience in the western America

The Gilded Age (1873): his first novel, collaborated with Charles Dudley Warner

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn哈克贝利·费恩历险记(1884): masterpiece Life on the Mississippi (1883)

A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court误闯亚瑟王宫(1889) The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg败坏了哈德莱堡的人(1900) The Mysterious Stranger (1916) e. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

1. It is \"a boy's book\" which sets 20 years before Civil War. 2. themes:

1)picaresque以流浪汉和无赖为题材的(adventure story) 2) moral growth of Tom

3. techniques: verisimilitude, humor, colloquial style

Mark Twain’s Style in General

the true father of American literature

Frequent use of sarcasm, slang and regional dialects.

4.5.1. Subject Matter: came directly from American people’s life along the Mississippi River, less influenced by foreign cultures 4.5.2. Genuine American style:

a) Language: easy, informal, humorous and unaffected [free from affectation; sincere], wild

b) He intentionally deviates from classical genteel and tends to use local dialects, colloquial language, even Black English, slang, clipped structures and ungrammatical sentences

Major work : Huckleberry Finn《哈克贝利·费恩历险记》 show escape to freedom

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) 德莱赛

Naturalism is a theory in literature emphasizing the role of heredity and environment upon human life and character development roughly between 1890’s and early 1900’s. There is no clear-cut chronological division between the American naturalists and the American realists.

对比Realism Naturalism

emphasis on the ordinary emphasis also on the extraordinary a mirror a lens the observer the scientist

moral or rational the accidental and physiological

Major Writing Features

6.3.1 As a naturalistic writer, Dreiser stressed determinism in his novels. ·His characters can’t assert their will against natural and economic forces.

·Dreiser held that people are not entirely to blame for what they are and what they do.

6.3.2. He developed the capacity for photographic and relentless observation, thereby truthfully reflecting the society and people of his time and making his novels very believable and convincing.

·Almost all of his main characters are based on the real people. ·Vivid description of environmental settings and social background

6.3.3. His novels are full of tragedies, serious subjects and miserable side of the society.

·Dreiser broke through the genteel tradition , revealed the life of the lower class people and dared to expose the vulgar and ugly side of the society.  Style

6.4.1. Language: very awkward, crude/on the bordering of line of grammar. 6.4.2. Serious in tone: never satirical or comic 6.4.3. Natural narrative method, free from artifice.

His narrative is based on quantities of materials and detailed descriptions. 作品

Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹(1900): the first novel, masterwork Jannie Gerhardt (1911) The Fanancier (1912) The Titan (1914) The Stoic (1947) The Genius (1915)

An American Tragedy美国悲剧 (1925) Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928) c. Sister Carrie

theme:the emptiness of Ameircan Dream i. jungle law

Famous actress bank manager(the unfit is bound to die) <—— Country girl (able to follow her instinct) commit suicide ii. chance and luck

iii. criticism of American values: money and sex —the standards to see if a person is successful

iv. concern for the poor

F.Scott Fitzgerald (1896-1940)

an Irish-American Jazz Age novelist and short story writer.  Theme of the American Dream Fitzgerald’s favorite theme is the American Dream. In The Great Gatsby and other works, a general pattern can be found to fully demonstrate Fitzgerald’s enthusiasm and his disillusionment with the American Dream: formally, a poor young man from the West trying to make his fortune in the East, but thematically, the young man goes on a journey of discovery from dream, through disenchantment, and finally to a sense of failure and despair. In this general pattern of the protagonist’s personal experience is incarnated the whole of American experience.

. Language

smooth, sensitive, original, simple and graceful

Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy Buchanan The Great Gatsby Theme:

1. about reality and atmosphere of 1920s 2. failure of American Dream

c. attitude towards the rich: paradoxical He is charmed by the rich.

He is critical of the rich who are corrupted themselves and meanwhile corrupting others.

d. attitude towards the Jazz Age: insider and outsider

人物 Jay Gatsby Nick Carraway Tom Buchanan Daisy Buchanan Gatsby, with all his freshness, his optimism, and his vitality Gatsby in the novel represents the newly rich upstart, vulgar in his ostentatious [showy] wealth. However, he becomes a kind of new American Adam. He is “great”, because he is dignified and ennobled by his dream and his mythic vision of life.

Tom Buchanan ：He is vulgar, hypocritical racist and bigot [person who holds sth strongly]. He is practical and non-idealistic, shallow and mistrustful of emotion. He never cares or takes responsibility.

 Daisy Buchanan：she also has an inner emptiness, marked by her boredom and cynicism and moral irresponsibility. She is afraid of being alone, as though she has no inner self. But she has the power to charm. Daisy represents material wealth to Gatsby, but it also connects with physical attraction. However, Daisy is unworthy of Gatsby’s love. She is incapable of living the fully imagined life that Gatsby has visualized. She is cowardly and selfish.

Nick is both a narrator and a character in this novel. He leads us to the dignity and depth of Gatsby’s character, and suggests the relation of his tragedy to the American situation.

Ernest Hemingway 海明威

style

1.iceberg principle. The meaning here is that the writer should say only one eighth, in such a way that the remaining seven eighths be discerned and provided by the reader.

2.language: short, common, fundamental words, simple sentence, structure.The effect of the language: clearness, cleanness and great care.

3.dialogue: plays a very important part in his writings. Hemingway’s dialogue can show setting, development of plot, characters, even theme.

4.cinematic way: he uses showing instead of telling. He likes to describes actions (kiss, withdraw hand) vividly instead of mental description.

5.symbolism

6.use of stream of consciousness traits for the Code Hero:

(1) Measuring himself against the difficulties life throws in his way, realizing that we will all lose ultimately because we are mortals, but playing the game honestly and passionately in spite of that knowledge.

(2) Facing death with dignity, enduring physical and emotional pain in silence (3) Never showing emotions

(4) Maintaining free-will and individualism, never weakly allowing commitment to a single woman or social convention to prevent adventure, travel, and acts of bravery (5) Being completely honest, keeping one's word or promise

(6) Being courageous and brave, daring to travel and have \"beautiful adventures,\" as Hemingway would phrase it

(7) Admitting the truth of Nada (Spanish, \"nothing\"), i.e., that no external source outside of oneself can provide meaning or purpose. This existential awareness also involves facing death without hope of an afterlife, which the Hemingway Code Hero considers more brave than \"cowering\" behind false religious hopes Themes nada，grace under pressure， code hero

Magic realism 加西亚·马尔克斯《百年孤独》Garcia Marques Century Loneliness)

Henry James

The American (1877): begins with international theme

Daisy Miller (1878): brings the author first international fame The Wings of the Dove (1902) The Ambassadors (1903) The Golden Bowl (1904)

The Portrait of A Lady贵妇画像:masterpiece

Jack London

The People of the Abyss深渊居民(1903): about London's slum

The Iron Heel 铁蹄(1908): the first proletarian criterion novel which envisages the development of fascism

The Call of the Wild 野性的呼唤(1903): the most widely read book The Sea Wolf 海狼(1904)

These two novels reflect the ideas of the law of survival and the will to power Martin Eden马丁伊登

Ezra Pound埃兹拉·庞德

Imagism意象派

Pound became the most important figure. Imagist poetry reached the peak of

literature for three things appeared:

i. a manifesto ii. three principles iii. a lot of writings In a Station of the Metro在地铁车站

1. This is the much-quoted masterpiece of Pound and a representative of the Imagist poetry.

2. Why does the poet call the faces of pedestrians \"apparition\"?

These pedestrians are all walking in a hurry amidst the drizzling rain.

3. What do \"petals\" and \"bough\" stand for? Petals refer to the faces while the bough stands for the floating crowd.

Robert Frost

b. Characteristics

 1. not in the main stream of modern poetry, but with conventional form and plain

language. That’s why he’s the most popular poet in the 20th century.

 2. a kind of a regionalist----New England, but not local colorism. He used New England

as a metaphor for the whole world and universe.

 3. a plain poet using symbols from everyday country life. Simple symbols but express

deep meanings. The Road Not Taken

 1. The poem was written in very regular lines with iambic pentametre and rhyme scheme

of abaab.

 2. The symbolic meaning of the two divergent roads is rather clear. They represent any

important decisions in one's life.  3. details:

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

 1. It is a lyric poem with iambic tetrametre and interlocking enclosed rhyme.

 2. It represents a moment of relaxation from the onerous journey of life, an almost

aesthetic enjoyment and appreciation of natural beauty which is wholesome and retorative against the chaotic existence of modern man.

William Faulkner (1897-1962)

Sound and Fury: divided into 4 parts 1. themes:

a) downfall of the South. The south was in deterioration. It’s going from bad to worse. The present and the past form a contrast from Benjy’s eyes. He’s an idiot so his reactions were distinctive feeling. He felt strongly the loss of love. The downfall of Mr. Campson was not only a personal one but also a universal one---the society was in disorder.

b) conflict between the old/young generations Father of Southern American literature Nobel Prize for literature in 1950 Special features

2.1. Setting :Oxford is the model for his fictional Jefferson, the central place of his fictional Yoknapatawpha County

2.2. Subjects :southern tradition, family, community, the land, history and the past, race, and the passions of ambition and love

2.3. Characters:Typical of the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South 写作技巧

Multiple Points of View ：He always structure his stories in his own original fashion and is proficient in employing a distinctive narrative method of gradually fitting in and of withholding or even giving confusing information.Stream of consciousness，complex structures, epic style, symbolism

William Faulkner威廉•福克纳1897-1962 1950年获诺贝尔文学奖, 普利策奖小说奖 1. 1929年《喧嚣与骚动》”The Sound and the Fury” 1930年《在我弥留之际》”As I Lay Dying” 1932年《八月之光》”Light in August”

1936年《押沙龙，押沙龙》”Absalom, Absalom” 教材作品：《给艾米莉小姐的玫瑰》：“A Rose for Emily”

南方文学特点： 主题：

作者获奖

The Nobel Prize &The Pulitzer Prize: John Steinbeck约翰•斯坦贝克 William Faulkner威廉•福克纳 Ernest Hemingway厄恩斯特•海明威

The Nobel Prize: Thomas Stearns Eliot托马斯•斯特恩斯•爱略特 The Pulitzer Prize: Wallace Stevens华莱士•斯蒂文斯 Robert Frost罗伯特•弗洛斯特 Edwin Arlington Robison埃德温•阿林顿•罗宾逊

尤金.奥尼尔（Eugene O’Neill，1888----1952），美国著名剧作家。一生共4次获普利策奖（1920，1922，1928，1957），并于1936年获诺贝尔文学奖。 琼斯皇帝》

The Emperor Jones (1920) 《毛猿》

The Hairy Ape (1921)

1918年《天边外》普利策奖。 1920《安娜·克里斯蒂》是奥尼尔第2次获得普利策奖的现实主义戏剧。 1928年《奇异的插曲》第3次获得普利策奖。 1936年，《榆树下之恋》获得诺贝尔文学奖。

1956《长夜漫漫路迢迢》这部带有自传性的剧作，按作家生前声明，在他死后的

1956年首次在瑞典上演，并又一次获得普利策奖。

1、征服畏惧、建立自信的最快最确实的方法，就是去做你害怕的事，直到你获得成功的经验。

2、忍别人所不能忍的痛，吃别人所别人所不能吃的苦，是为了收获得不到的收获。就像驴子面前吊着个萝卜就会往前走。正因为有那个目标，你才有劲儿往前走。